Let the Season be Bright

Xmas Lights in Snow

So here's the promised picture of the house decorated for Xmas. Strand of lighted garland draping across the front acting as an achor to the lit artificial tree decorated with silver garland. To top it off, a white light in each window!

I'm feeling festive!

Land of Misfits

Xmas Tree and Village

In many ways, the fact that we have set up a small Land of Misfit Toys Christmas village in our bay window is a fitting reminder of how out of place I sometimes feel in the country. Yes, I love my house and, yes, we have been (mostly) accepted into the neighborhood. But still - to have so much fashionably good taste in the middle of Windham country? Truly misfits. :)

Anyway - the tree is just lovely. Crystal and silver garland, white lights and ornaments colored in various shades of purple and white. And its my first live tree in many years - thanks to Todd and Melissa to letting me know when they were going out to cut their tree - I was able to hitch a ride and we went to a local tree farm in Brooklyn.

We even bought some pre-lit garland for the front of the house - it is draped across the front of the farmer's porch - I'll see if I can get a picture to come out of that. We also took my artificial tree, strung it with lights and silver garland and put that to one side on the porch. We even have white lights for the windows in front. Very pretty indeed!

Now all we need is for a good snowfall before Christmas. (I know - I know - becareful what you wish for!!!)

Our First Snow

The House with Its White Coat

Our Neighbor Jean's House and Barn

This is the scene we woke up to this morning -- Winter has arrived a bit early! I'm running around all romantic like, thoroughly enjoying the beauty and splendor of first snow in Chaplin CT. Barry's grousing about how much he hates snow and how on EARTH is he going to get out with over 6 inches on the ground (it's probably about 2 inches, but the TV News said Chaplin got upwards of 4).

Regardless, my good spirits are NOT dampened and its absolutely GORGEOUS.

Greetings from California!

Well, I'm in California this week for a convention on Knowledge Management. KMWorld/Intranets was the conference Kaye, Jeffrey and I first formed this wacky notion of ours to actually imbed KM processes into The Hartford. As a result, we've spent 2 years of our lives (a lot of it AFTER work!) in order to try and create something meaningful. We're making *some* progress, but not as much as we'd like (or as fast as we like). But someone somewhere must think that we have something with this whole KM thing because I'm here at the convention once again trying to soak up as much information on implementing KM successfully as I can.

I was able to get away for *some* time to visit Paramount's Great America amusement park this week. I've got some pictures I'll upload later to amuse you with.

My key problem this week has been trying to find something to eat that DOESN'T cost an arm and a leg. The restaurant in the hotel is way expensive. The Sushi Bar attached to the lounge is reasonable for sushi, but for anyone who's had sushi, that's not too cheap either. :) But the lounge serves up a MEAN cosmopolitan - hmmmm. Speaking of which - I think I'll go get another...

A Weekend in Ogunquit

Ogunquit's Marginal Way

Another Marginal Way Shot

Along the Shore at the Marginal Way

Barry and I spent a wonder "quick" getaway weekend just before the 4th of July in Ogunquit Maine. It was a long shot, but Barry was able to get some time away from the store, courtesy of his mother, brother and co-workers, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to get away. Neither of us had really been to Ogunquit before, often considered a more sleepy and out of the way version of PTown. We stayed in a very nice Gay B&B, with the most incredibly SMALL shower we dubbed "The Coffin." In fact, I think a coffin would have been roomier. At one point, Barry joked about not being able to get off the toilet because he was stuck between the walls on either side.

Anyway, the quick trip was exciting and wonderful. We found the most lovely shadowbox with 3 dried maple leaves in the same colors as our living room (sage green, yellowish tan, and maroon), and had the most amazing seafood the entire time. We did a LOT of walking, which helped with keeping the calories down.

Fall is in the Air...

The house decorated for fall.

Well, it's been a LONG time since I posted anything here, so I thought I would at least put out a picture of the house decorated for fall. We bought some great mums at a country garden place, along with some pumpkins. We even have a "Happy Halloween" banner hanging from the door that annoys me most evenings. It's not anchored so well against the door, so it seems like someone is knocking on the door in the middle of the night.

I've got a lot of other pictures to post, including those from the housewarming in August! I'm so behind!!!

Finally! The inside pictures!

Well, I finally got off my butt and decided to publish the pictures of the inside of the house. Hope it was finally worth the wait!!


Kitchen in Ivy/Grape/Wine theme 


Kitchen Detail 


Bay Window with more Grape and Ivy 

The kitchen and Bay Window areas have a grape/ivy/wine theme going, and I think Barry did a great job putting up the accents. We had a great time finding stuff to put into the kitchen - apparently the theme is very popular because we had no trouble finding accents at discount prices.


Living Room 


Front Door to Back Slider 

The living room has a dark sage/maroon/tan color scheme. Originally we had a theme idea of TUSCANY! (it's important to note the exclamation point - think of Will & Grace and "JUST JACK!" when describing the theme). Since then, we're still pondering what we want in there, but so far there's only color, no theme. We have a great mirror with faux copper finish that will hang above the couch - the copper will pick up the copper in the coffee table frame, so that should be really nice when it gets up on the wall.


Dining Room with Countertop Table 

For the dining room, we picked out a gorgeous countertop table. Actually, while Barry loves this table, it's the only room where we have had disagreements. He wanted to turn this space into a TV room, leaving the living room for guest entertainment. But I really wanted a nice dining space for when we had family over for dinner. At the moment, our theme for this room will be Japanese/Oriental; he's gotten a really nice Geisha doll for the centerpiece, and has some wall hangings that we got at Disney that would look nice in here. Needless to say, our dinnerware will probably end up being black japanese-style plates.


Garage - see Barry's new car on the right? 

To finish off the first level, here's an inside shot of the garage, complete with both cars. Barry's brother, Steven, helped him purchase his new Toyota Corolla, which was a huge help. Having a car he can rely on for distance travel to and from work has sped up our discussions about Barry moving into the house. And if it wasn't for Steven, I would NEVER have gotten the garage door openers up! Thanks, Steven!!!


Master Bedroom - a mix of themes. 


Master Bedrom from the other side. 

And finally, here are the pictures of the master bedroom. The furniture we got at a Rhode Island chain called Cardi's, and we just love it. It's sort of a art deco style in a cherry wood, but we pulled a polynesian theme from the painting hanging over the bed. So we have a polynesian/palm/bamboo/English Colonial thing happening that's quite pleasant. The palm tree theme carries over into the master bath as well.

That's it for house pictures! Hope you enjoyed them.

Ahhh. The Sweet Smell of ... Roadkill?

UConn's Titan Arum - the Corpse Flower. 


My neighbor, Melissa, in front of the Corpse Flower. 


Why am I smiling? It smells like 3 day old roadkill in here! 

Well, I got to see the Corpse Flower that is blooming ridulously close to my house. UConn's Life Sciences Department has grown this unusual tropical flower from a seed the size of a Lima Bean. It flowers VERY infrequently (it was planted 10 years ago), and when it does, it's amazing. The flower grew from a small stalk to over 5 feet tall in less than a month. When the base of the flower opens, it emits a NASTY stench that smells like something died several days previously on the side of the road. In the middle of summer. *gag*

But this was a once in a lifetime chance to see something unusual. :) More information can be found on UConn's web site. If you don't see the link directly, you can search on "corpse flower" to find articles on it.

Where'd the Postings Go?

I think at some point you'll see many of the articles disappearing off of the web site. Where did they go? Well, blogging tools often "archive" older posts to a special area once a month. If you look on the left side of the web page, you'll see (eventually) a set of links for "Archive". If you click on June 2004, you'll get to all of the stories posted for June 2004 (duh).

Pictures of the House

For those who demanded it!!! Here are the long awaited pictures of the house. Pictures of the INSIDE of the house will be posted later when I have more time.


The Front from the Driveway 

The Back Yard 

Other Side Showing the Garage 
Here's a shot of the house and garage...you can almost see my convertible tucked away inside the garage...


The Other Side of the House 

Detail of the Front Farmers Porch 
Here are details of the side of the house, including the Farmer's Porch. I can't wait until we can find something to put on it to sit on! There's a Chimenea sitting in the basement, just waiting to be used, but we have nothing to sit on.


House as Seen from the Driveway Entrance 
This is probably my most favorite shot - that the house is almost hidden from the road. It provides so much privacy! For those of you who suck at playing "Where's Waldo", the house is sitting in the upper left of the picture behind the foliage... The North 40 is to the right. The picture is taken just as the driveway starts at the road - the mailbox would be on the cameraman's right...


View of the North 40 in the Distance as Seen from the Porch 

Close Up of the North 40 
Here are pictures of the infamous North 40 where I spend all that time mowing. :) So far, I've run into 2 snakes, a large ant hill, and a bunny burrow (yes, the bunnies are OK - I got to them in time - but not before my inner red-headed school girl shrieked when she saw something moving under the hay...).